


A glimpse into the interaction between Jim Moriarty and Mycroft Holmes

by oswin42



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Other, jimcroft - Freeform, short bits, there won't be smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9471155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oswin42/pseuds/oswin42
Summary: This is intended to be a collection of shorts featuring the interaction between Jim and Mycroft. I'll be adding to it as I go on.





	1. Chapter 1

Mycroft Holmes was shoved into Jim's office rather carelessly. He had been handcuffed and searched. Jim’s employee dropped Mycroft's umbrella and the content of Mycroft's pocket (phone, thin wallet, a few coins and his pocket watch). Mycroft glared at the employee while Jim had yet to look up from his book.

“Is that all, sir?” the employee asked.

Jim looked up “quite so. Leave us.”

The employee glanced at Mycroft before deciding he wasn’t going to argue with Jim and left.

"Was this really necessary?" Mycroft enquired as he deposited the handcuffs on Jim's desk a second later.

"I have a reputation to uphold, dear." Jim said with a smile "tea or scotch?"

Mycroft picked up the pocket watch and checked the time before putting it back on his waistcoat “tea.”

"Besides," Jim said as he got up and switched the kettle on "you do the same when I visit you."

“You broke into vauxhall!” Mycroft protested “Of course I had you arrested.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like it was hard or anything.” Jim said as he made tea. He set out two delicate porcelain cups that featured magpies. He set the cups on the desk and let Mycroft pick one before taking the other. He sipped his tea and watched Mycroft match his posture.

“Why are you here, Mycroft?” Jim asked after the first sip.

Mycroft put his cup back on the saucer “can’t you read it?”

“Of course I can.” Jim said with just a hint of coldness in his voice “I can also see you don’t want to say it, so stop playing this little game. If you want something you need to ask me.”

Mycroft put the cup and saucer on the table and huffed frustrated “fine. I have a little probl_”

Jim cut him off sharply “no, no, no Mycroft. You know what I mean.”

“Dear Jim” Mycroft started. Jim grinned widely. “Will you fix it for me that the russian mole in MI6 is still alive.”

Jim put his cup and saucer down and immediately forgot about his tea. He typed a few commands on the keyboard in front of him.

“What will be in it for me?”

“I can pay you.” Mycroft offered, even though he already knew Jim wouldn’t be interested.

“Stop insulting me, Mycroft, especially if you want me to do this job. You know I don’t want money from you.”

“Unlike you, James, I have to keep to certain protocols.” Mycroft said in the tone that Jim had dubbed the ‘iceman voice’.

Jim watched Mycroft for a second before he spoke “those protocols would assumably also prevent you from offering the hit to a criminal and talking to me like this in general.”

“I’m simply visiting an old friend, James.”

“Friend, enemy… All the same these days.” Jim replied “now what /do/ you have to offer me?”

Mycroft sighed and took a sip from his tea before he spoke again “I am willing to not investigate or turn attention to whatever you are running at Imperial College London.”

For a fraction of a second Jim had a genuine smile on his face before it turned into a content grin.

“Seems like we have a deal.” He said as he held out his hand over the table. Mycroft shook it. He then pocketed his belongings and grabbed a pen and piece of paper from Jim’s desk. Jim typed a few more commands on the computer and Mycroft wrote down a few details.

“Picture to follow.” he said as he handed Jim the piece of paper and got up. He picked up his trusty umbrella.

“I will see you again soon.” Jim said while already focussed on his screen.

“Undoubtedly” Mycroft replied less enthusiastic as he turned and left Jim’s office.


	2. Valentine's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim and Mycroft don't do romance, except when they do. A little drabble for Valentines day. 
> 
> (implied that Jim and Mycroft dated when they were younger, in my mind when they were both at University)

Mycroft glanced at the calendar on his way into his office at the Diogenes club. It was the 14th of February. Mycroft went over his schedule in his mind as he unlocked the door. He opened it and stopped in his tracks as he spotted a rose on his desk. Attached to it seemed to be a small card. He looked around carefully, but nothing else seemed out of place. He stepped forward cautiously and, after nothing else happened, he walked to his desk. He inspected the rose and the card. The card had, in fancy handwriting, “xxx M” written on it in black ink. It was expensive paper and the handwriting had the clear marks of having been written with a dip pen. It was attached to the rose with a soft strand of twine. Mycroft could not help it but smile as his mind went back to their earlier years. He turned his attention to the rose. It was a deep, dark pink and at its most beautiful. Mycroft took out his phone and scrolled through the list of flower meanings.

> **Rose, deep pink:**
> 
> _Appreciation, Gratitude,_
> 
> _''Thank You for being in my life''_

Mycroft could not help it but smile. Jim could be such a romantic and, even though Mycroft would never admit it, he quite liked that. He wished that things hadn’t changed since those student days, but he knew it could never be like that again, they both had their jobs at opposites sides of the law.

He stood for a moment with the rose in his hand before making a decision. He pressed the intercom button on his desk.

“Anthea, clear my evening.”

“Yes sir.” came the crisp female voice from the intercom.

 

The day was spent calling several specialized antique stores after leaving a discrete message where Jim would most certainly find it. After an early supper he made his way to the V&A museum, with a quick detour to an antique store. He used a discrete backdoor to make his way to one of the rooms that displayed medieval weaponry, in particular a sword he’d referenced to in his message to Jim. He knew Jim would find it and be here at the suggested time, even though the museum would be closed by then. He took a seat and checked his pocket watch. Still fifteen minutes until the time he’d suggested, though he didn’t doubt that Jim would be early. He took out his phone and spent his waiting time reading some files on it.

 

“I got your message.” Jim’s voice came. Mycroft looked up to see Jim leaning in the doorway.

“Good evening, James.” Mycroft said with a smile.

“Oh please Mycroft, it’s Jim.” Jim replied with the same smile on his face. “You do love to make a statement.” he motioned around the room.

“Naturally.” Mycroft said with a soft grin as he pocketed his phone, picked up the book and stood. “Thank you for the rose, Jim. Allow me to give you something in return.” Mycroft handed the book to Jim, who carefully unwrapped it and smiled.

“A first edition ‘The Game of Logic’ by Charles Dodgson.” Jim remarked as he looked through it. “A very thoughtful gift of you.”

“I have it on good authority that you already own ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ and I know how you enjoy your Lewis Carroll.”

“It is much appreciated, Mycroft.” Jim replied with a genuine smile. “Can I interest you in joining me this evening?”

Mycroft smiled rather sadly “I think it is best for the both of us if we do not repeat the past, James.”

Jim pressed a soft kiss on Mycroft’s cheek. “I’ll never forget that Valentine's Day in Oxford, dear.”

“Neither will I.” Mycroft said quietly as he put his hand on Jim’s arm. “But it is better this way.”

“I’ll see you again soon, Mycroft.” Jim said, with a hint of sadness in his voice, as he carefully tucked a polaroid into Mycroft’s breast pocket. “Never forgotten.” he spoke with a soft smile before turning and leaving.

Mycroft reached into the pocket and pulled the polaroid out. It was them, years ago and smiling happily with the history of science museum in Oxford behind them. Mycroft couldn’t help it but smile happily once more as he studied the photograph on his way home. Today hadn’t been as lovely as that particular Valentine's Day, but it had been a lovely one all the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am taking suggestions for what else you should think I should write as a drabble/short for Jim and Mycroft   
> (note: it's by no means a guarantee that I'll write it, but I might be inspired by it. Of course if I am inspired I will give you credit)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're at university together and Jim's housemate is having sex again. So logically he breaks into Mycrofts room to hide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's been slightly longer than I thought but I was inspired to write this all of a sudden.

“Good evening, James.” Mycroft said when he walked into his dorm room. He needn’t turn on the lights to know he would find Jim laying on his bed.

The room screamed Mycroft. There were books, files and notebooks and each was neatly in its place.

James, unlike Mycroft, shared his place with several others. Mycroft's parents had money so he could afford his own place. Mycroft had been to James’ room and, while it wasn’t horrible, it was small. His bed barely fit in his room.

Mycroft glanced around to see if Jim had touched anything and noticed he had only touched his fencing kit bag. He closed the door and turned the desk light on. He loosened his tie and hung his suit jacket on a coat hanger.

“How was dinner with that secret service recruiter?” Jim asked without getting up or even looking in Mycroft's direction.

Mycroft let out a slightly frustrated huff. He hadn’t told Jim anything, but then again he shouldn’t be surprised that Jim knew.

“Why are you here, James?” He asked instead of answering the question.

“You know why I’m here.”

“You cannot keep hiding from your housemate’s sex noises in my place. Why don’t you just move? You’ve got plenty of money stashed away, mister I-am-not-a-criminal.”

“And you know I can’t just use that without arousing suspicion.”

“You’re a right git, James.” Mycroft said, not entirely meaning it.

“It went that bad?”

“Do you need to be that annoying?” Mycroft growled as he dug his whiskey bottle out of a drawer.

“Oh.” James said, recognizing that Mycroft had indeed had a bad evening. He sat up. “Pour me a glass as well.”

Mycroft grabbed two mugs and put them on the table, the first was an Alice in Wonderland mug featuring the Mad Hatter and the second was one that Jim had carefully and precisely decorated with the MI6 logo. He poured a finger of whiskey in both mugs. He handed the Alice in Wonderland mug to Jim and sipped the other. He only ever used that one when he was with Jim and he wasn’t going to admit that he actually liked the present Jim had made for him. He finally let his gaze fall on Jim properly. He could now see Jim's face as the light shined on it. Jim has a black eye and a few scrapes on his face. Mycroft let out another frustrated sigh.

“Who did you fight with this time.”

“Laurens called me a nerd.”

“You are a nerd, James.”

“That’s entirely beside the point.”

“I’ll go get the first aid kit.” Mycroft said before downing his whiskey and getting up.

 

“Let's go fencing” Jim said when Mycroft had cleaned the scrapes on Jim's face and hands.

“Don’t you have enough injuries for at least a week?”

“Do you plan on injuring me?” Jim countered.

“It’s fencing, James. You can get hurt.”

“Oh come on. Just you and me in the park, with moonlight. Doesn’t that sound fantastic?”

“You’ll end up getting us arrested.”

“Oh come on! Live a little!”

“We have fencing tomorrow afternoon, James. Be a little patient.”

“You do realize you’re telling /me/ that?”

“I am tired, James, and getting seriously tempted to grab you by your hair and kick you out of my place.”

Jim ran hand through his messy black hair and tried to decide if he would like that or not.

Mycroft glared at Jim, as he read exactly what Jim had been thinking. “Don’t you have a paper to finish?”

“Not really.”

“Liar.”

Jim rolled his eyes “I’m staying here.”

Mycroft poured himself more whiskey and downed it all too quickly. He didn’t want to think about any of it, he wanted Jim to just shut up.

“Myc… just tell me what happened.” James said after Mycroft had poured whiskey into his mug for the third time.

“You probably already know.” Mycroft growled.

“I know what’s likely, and you knew it would probably have happened too.”

“I’m not too fucking young for the job.” Mycroft growled. Jim raised an eyebrow, he hadn't heard Mycroft curse often and it took him by surprise. He took the mug from Mycroft's hand and downed it instead.

“You’ve had plenty to drink, Myc.” James said sternly. He certainly could take advantage of Mycroft when he was like this. He’d done that with other people plenty of times, tricking people in telling him secrets or getting money, but Mycroft would realize it afterwards and he was the only real friend James had, so he saw no other option as to looking after his friend for a bit. He pushed softly against Mycroft's shoulders and got him to lay down on the bed.

“Sleep it off, Myc.” Jim said with a soft tone in his voice Mycroft had rarely heard.

  
Mycroft must have dozed off at that point because the next thing he remembered was waking up, still dressed, in his bed with a sleeping Jim on his floor. Jim had his head on his bag, his notebook half on his chest and a pencil lying next to his left hand. He draped his blanket over his friend and quietly left to shower and change into clean clothes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to check out one of my other fics called Not about Number Theory which also features Jim and Mycroft at university and will be updated on Mondays (usually). In it Mycroft is Jims professor and tutor.


	4. Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> because it's my headcanon that Jim's real birthday is March 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It started as an inside joke between me and a friend of mine when I complained about not having an interesting day as birthday and I would much rather have an interesting day as March 14. It quickly turned into Jim's birthday.
> 
> So, Happy Birthday Jim and happy Pi day to the rest of you (3,14159).

It was marked with a small blue cross in Mycroft’s diary. Unobtrusive and easily missed but plenty of a reminder for Mycroft. It’d taken Mycroft years to figure it out as Jim had given a fake one on his university papers. Trying to find the real one was something he’d done early in his career but it had taken a while longer for him to actually find out. And so the little blue cross in the corner of March 14 had found his way into his agenda.

 

It was the evening of March 13th and Mycroft sat behind his desk in his study with a book on cryptography next to him. He knew Jim could probably figure out the code he chose in seconds, but that was hardly the point. He knew Jim would enjoy it. He carefully copied the coded message from his notebook to the expensive paper. He put the piece of paper in a matching envelope and dug a wax seal and bordeaux red sealing wax out of a drawer. He wasn’t going to use any seal he used for his work or any other correspondence, but instead he had chosen one with an engraving of the Elizabeth Tower. Mycroft found it amusing and he knew Jim would find it funny. He sealed the envelope with the wax and put it on top of the little box with the logo of a prestigious auction house.

 

Mycroft wondered if Jim celebrated his birthday at all when he walked into the University building the next morning. If he did, it was to keep up appearances and not today. He had a pretty good idea what Jim was doing in the university building and why he had an office there. This was the mathematics department after all. Mycroft carefully used his lockpicks the open the door to Jim’s office and looked around as he stepped in. He looked around and smiled as he saw Jim’s quick and dirty handwriting on the whiteboard that covered most of one wall. The office was more or less tidy, a large stack of papers on his desk and old mathematics books everywhere. There was some Alice in Wonderland themed artwork on the wall next to the big bookcase opposite the whiteboard. Mycroft also spotted some university pictures of Jim and one more recent one. Mycroft smiled as he saw the recent one. Jim dressed more like an old professor when he was at the university evidently.

Mycroft focussed again, put the envelope and little box on the table and left again.

* * *

 

Jim came into his office at the university around lunch time, about forty-five minutes before he was teaching a lecture, and stopped as he saw the items on his desk. He closed the door behind him and looked around his office before sitting down at his desk. He inspected the envelope and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when he saw the seal. He opened the envelope and smiled when he saw the seemingly random letters (things are very rarely truly random). He wiped the equations off the whiteboard and solved the code while writing.

   
_It’s once in a minute, twice in a moment and never in a thousand years._

  
Jim chuckled as he left it on the blackboard and picked the box up. He opened it to reveal a vintage tie pin with a small bird on it that, Jim suspected, was made to look like a magpie. Not that he’d admit it, but he liked Mycroft’s sense of humour. He took out his phone and texted the answer of the riddle to Mycroft, but left it unanswered on both the letter and the whiteboard. He figured it would be a fun little riddle for students or other professors if they came into his office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jim solved the riddle quickly, as Mycroft knew he would. Jim left it unanswered for you to solve. Do you know the answer?


	5. Returning favours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Jim's birthday we now have Mycrofts birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my Mycroft: Happy birthday

Saying that Jim was restless was an understatement. Only a week left and he hadn’t thought of anything fitting. He’d spent hours thinking and looking online, but nothing came up. It had to be _perfect_.

The next morning, inspiration finally struck at four am. Still half asleep he sat up and grabbed his phone. He typed out a few emails to contacts and went back to sleep. 

In the end it wasn’t that much of a hassle. He spent an hour or two carefully drawing up plans and sent them to his contacts.

Jim was up early on the day itself. He picked up the designs and prepped the rest. Finally he made his way to Mycroft’s house and arranged the things in the office. He waved at the camera on his way out and went to set part 2 in motion.

  
  


Mycroft got home early. He went through his mail as he walked up to his office. A few polite birthday cards, a card from his parents and a note from John (who’d clearly made Sherlock sign it as well). He stopped when he saw the box on his desk. He made a note to tell Jim off for breaking in and inspected the box. It was laser-cut wood with intricate designs on it featuring magpies and symbols from the British history (Plus decidedly one or two umbrella’s). He tried to open it but soon found out it was a puzzle box. He sat down and inspected the box closely. It took him less than ten minutes to figure out that the hidden lock was a combination of buttons and holding the box a certain way. With a satisfying ‘click’ the box opened. Inside were a montblanc pen and a note. It was written in red ink and simply stated some coordinates. He quickly checked the location and found it to be St. Ermin's Hotel near st. James park. Mycroft chuckled. Jim certainly knew MI6 history. He grabbed his umbrella and coat and took off.

As he stepped into the hotel he looked around, hoping for some clue. Within seconds the porter was there. “Are you mister Holmes, sir?”

“Yes.” Mycroft replied

“You’re expected in the bar.”

“Thank you, young man.” Mycroft said and made his way to where he knew the bar was. He had, on occasion, used this location himself, though it had been a while now.

 

Jim was waiting for Mycroft at a table in the corner of the bar. He was dressed in a 1920s suit and was drinking a glass of whiskey. He rose when he saw Mycroft.

“Mister Holmes, I’m glad you could make it.” He said politely.

“James.” Mycroft replied with a hint of a smile.

“Do sit down. Have a drink. Maybe some cake? I hear their chocolate cake is fantastic.”

“Why am I here, James?” Mycroft asked as he sat down.

“Because this present is something I would like to give you in person.” Jim replied simply as he put a long paper-wrapped object on the table.

Mycroft eyed it for a moment. “You got me an umbrella.” He remarked dryly.

“In essence, yes, but please open it.”

Mycroft carefully took the paper wrapping off and inspected the umbrella. It was black with a wooden handle and it looked expensive.

“Try the handle.” Jim encouraged.

Mycroft twisted the handle with a practiced motion to reveal a rapier hidden inside. Again, Mycroft inspected it closely. He looked up at Jim and smiled “thank you, James.”

“Happy birthday, mister Holmes.” Jim said as he got up.

“Are you not staying?” Mycroft asked with a hint of disappointment.

“I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from your plans on your birthday. I believe your brother has planned a visit.”

“Then he’ll have to wait. Do sit down, James. Let’s have a drink.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the amazing disgvises on tumblr for helping me out with spelling and grammar whenever needed.


End file.
